


Elerium Brunette

by ornithomancy



Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Brief Appearance by Will Weir (thank you bat!), Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, this is potentially the dumbest thing i have ever written im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-01 18:08:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12710184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ornithomancy/pseuds/ornithomancy
Summary: Two of the Council's top agents are sent to Prague to recover a List of all known agents operating in the region. It's not as simple and straightforward a mission as either hopes it would be.





	1. Setkání

**Author's Note:**

> I was strong-armed into this by some horrible, horrible people. _Extremely_ loosely based on Atomic Blonde.

“Agent Bradford.”

John lifts his chin and straightens out his shoulders, trying to appear as professional as possible. Surprise meetings were always worrisome, but he was confident that he hadn’t done anything to warrant any punishment. He takes comfort in the fact that it’s unlikely to be a meeting to warn him of his inevitable death. Such was the life of a spy.

“Sir,” he greets. It’s hard to get a read on the Spokesman, but he thinks he likes him.

“You are about to be assigned to a mission,” the Spokesman says, directly to business as usual. “Your assigned partner will be here shortly. Despite our selection, we urge you not to come to rely on her entirely.”

He raises an eyebrow, interested but not overly concerned. “I can take the mission on alone, if you think she’ll betray the Council.”

“This is not a mission you can take on alone. She will be useful at the beginning, certainly, but there is a risk she may desert.”  
Bradford rolls back onto his heels, somewhat surprised. Usually when told not to trust a fellow spy, it was due to fears of double agents. “If she does, am I to follow?”

“No,” the Spokesman answers quickly. “If she deserts, report back and we will deal with her.”

He nods. “Understood, Sir.”

Silence falls between them, the Spokesman’s private words for him apparently done. He relaxes his stance again and waits.

Not even two minutes later the door to the room bursts open and another of the Council’s lackeys ushers in a woman. The representative hands each of them a thick file before disappearing again. John flips his open to skim through it.

“Agent Mercier,” the Spokesman says, not anywhere close to fondly.

“Spokesman.” She flashes him a forced smile. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“John Bradford, Tatiana Mercier, the Council has a mission for you two.”

Tatiana eyes him from the corner of her eye. “You know I don’t do well with partners.”

“This mission is larger than one person, Agent,” the Spokesman warns lowly. “Agent Shen was in Prague to recover a list of agents and keep it out of enemy hands.”

Tatiana stiffens at the mention of Agent Shen.

“Just this morning, Agent Shen was murdered and the list was stolen, presumably by ADVENT operatives.”

“You want us to recover this list,” John concludes. “I don’t know Czech.”

The Spokesman shifts his shadowed gaze from him to Tatiana. “Agent Mercier does.”

They share a look.

“Do we have any leads to begin with?” she asks sharply, turning her attention back to the Spokesman.

“The List was stolen originally by an agent known only as ‘Rov-r’ who handed it off to Agent Shen. Find Rov-r, and perhaps you can find the list,” he suggests.

“Yes, Sir,” John says. Tatiana murmurs her own affirmative and turns to leave.

“There is one last note, Agent,” he warns. She stops and turns back around. “There is a chance you will run into an agent known as ‘the Commander.’ If you do, eliminate them with extreme prejudice.”

“Understood.”

“Eliminate? Not capture?” John asks incredulously.

The Spokesman nods. “The Commander has been feeding secrets to ADVENT for too long and is too dangerous to be captured. Whoever eliminates them will be handsomely rewarded and likely never need to work again.”

“Understood, Sir,” John says, nodding.

“Remember, we will be watching.”

The screen goes dark before them and without hesitation Tatiana turns on her heel and leaves. He is quick to follow, easily catching up to her.

“Let’s make this a quick mission,” she says.

“Really have a problem with partners, then?”

She levels him with a flat glare. “I _can_ work with partners. In this case, I’d like to find this List before the Commander does.”

He raises a curious eyebrow. “Are you afraid of them?”

“Of course not,” she scoffs. “If anything, I’d like to eliminate them myself. It’d be a good way to leave the business.”

“I’ve heard of you, you know. Rumors never painted you to be one to want to retire,” he says.

“At this point, I’m sure the Council would love it if I retired,” she retorts, stifling a laugh. “Receiving commendations for taking down the Commander would be a nice ‘fuck you’ to them before going out.”

He stifles a laugh of his own. “You really don’t like the Council, do you?”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“I noticed.”

She regards him for a moment with a ghost of a smile on her face. “Don’t let their opinion of me color yours,” she says. She catches the door and holds it open for him.

He nods minutely and hesitates for a brief second. “Do you have a ride?” he asks. “We’ve got a flight out in four hours.”

“I’ll grab a taxi, don’t worry,” she assures.

He nods and heads to the garage, lingering for just long enough to see her flag down a taxi and climb in.

 

* * *

 

“I told you to sleep on the plane,” Tatiana says.

They stride out of the train station with their bags in tow. She flags down a taxi for them to climb into.

“I _tried_. I don’t understand how you just passed out,” he retorts.

She glances at him out of the side of her eye. “I didn’t. I just ignored you and got whatever rest I could. I’m in some desperate need of some tea,” she retorts.

“You _what?_ ”

She flashes a smirk and turns to tell the taxi driver the address of their hotel.

 

* * *

 

They dump their belongings in their respective rooms which are fortunately just across the hall from each other, then walk down to the nearby cafe to get the caffeine that they so desperately need.

John sticks close to Tatiana to avoid having to say anything, perhaps closer than necessary, but she doesn’t comment. She hands him his coffee when their drinks come out and they take a seat at a table in a corner to talk.

“So, any ideas for trying to find the List?” she asks casually.

“Normally I would, but with the language barrier intelligence collection is rather difficult.”

“We can do it together, then,” she offers. “I’ll hook targets in, and if they know enough English, I’ll pass them off to you.”

“Isn’t that a little suspicious?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m not charming enough to work the information out alone. Do you have a better idea?”

John leans back and contemplates. “We could pose as a couple,” he suggests at last. “Foreign boyfriend who doesn’t know the language, it’d give a plausible reason to switch the conversation to English, and for why we’re going around together.”

She snorts in amusement, then flicks her gaze up and down his form. “Well, you wouldn’t the the worst person I’ve had to pretend to date,” she retorts, smirking.

“Sounds like we have a plan, then,” he says, shooting her a smirk of his own.

“The Council gave us Rov-r’s last known residence,” she says, passing a torn piece of paper towards him. “The dossier said she speaks fluent English, so I figured you could go after her.”

He raises and eyebrow and glances down at the address written on the note. “If you can help me figure out where the place is, I’ll do it. What about you?”

“I’ll take you there. Walking around the city will be good practice for pretending to be a couple,” she sighs. “I want look through Agent Shen’s apartment, see if there are any clues he might have left behind.”

John frowns. “That sounds… easier for someone who doesn’t speak the local language.”

She snorts. “And if the police walk in? You’re not going to be able to explain why you’re going through the belongings of a dead man,” she retorts, a hint of a smirk on her lips. She pauses to take a drink of tea, then rests against the table looking a bit sullen. “Besides, I was… friends with him. If he left even the slightest clue, I’ll be better suited to figuring it out.”

“That’s fair,” he says leaning back. He looks at her for a moment, almost amused if it weren’t for the obvious distress about their fellow agent. “If you’re so tired yourself, why didn’t you get coffee over tea?”

“I hate the smell of the stuff. If you see me drinking coffee, it’s because my only other option is death,” she retorts, lightening up a bit.

He stifles a laugh. “Still, maybe we should put off hunting for clues until tomorrow. Let us both rest up,” he suggests.

She shakes her head. “No. I’ll be fine once I get going again. And you need to find Rov-r before anything happens to them.” She shoves the note with the address back into her coat pocket and swipes up her tea. She stands and offers her hand to him to help him up.

He doesn’t hesitate to grab her hand and pull himself up. “Lead the way, _darling,”_ he teases.

Tatiana shoots him a scowl, though there’s hardly any fire behind it. Without any delay she all but drags him out of the cafe and down the streets.

The pace she sets is quick but not hurried. John lets himself be distracted by the sights along the Prague skyline, though, which slows them down.

“I’m sure you can find the time to sightsee another time,” she says, giving his hand a firm tug to try and hurry him along.  
He retaliates by wrapping his arm around hers and forcing them to walk slower, shoulder to shoulder. “Is that an offer to show me around?” he asks, smirking.

“This is going to be insufferable already, isn’t it?”

“Just part of the job. What’s that building?” He points to a pair of gothic spires rising above the mix of gothic and harshly modern architecture in the skyline.

She narrows her eyes and hums for a moment. “ _Týnský chrám,_ Church Týn. I don’t remember it’s proper English name,” she says.

“It’s gorgeous.”

“It’s better at dawn. At the right angle, the sun rises right between the spires.”

He doesn’t miss the touch of fondness in her voice. “We’ll have to get up early one morning.”

She glances up at him and a smile tugs at the corners of her lips. “Supposing you can get over your jetlag quick enough,” she teases.

Most of their walk continues in much the same way, with her naming some of the more prominent structures on the city skyline that he points out. By the time they come to a stop outside the modern style apartment building that Rov-r supposedly lives in, both of them had finally started to relax into the other’s touch, making them appear less awkward to passerbys.

“Third floor, number 18,” Tatiana says, easily slipping back into her work mindset. She untangles her arm from his and puts a bit of space between them. “Meet you back at the hotel?”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

She hesitates for a brief second, then steps back in to press a kiss to his cheek. “See you later,” she says.

She turns and disappears down the street before he can react.

 

* * *

 

Tatiana arrives at Raymond Shen’s former apartment with two yellow adonis flowers in hand. She lays them down gently in front of the doorway and says a few quiet words in Czech before stepping inside.

The apartment is practically spotless, as she would have expected from Shen. Nothing is obviously out of place which makes it easy to pick through his belongings.

There aren’t any clues as to who might have attacked him nor where the list may be, but she does find a photo on his desk beside a small pentagonal badge. She picks the photo up and the faces of Raymond Shen, his wife, and a teenage girl stare up at her from in front of the golden gate bridge. She smiles fondly at the memory of the man she once knew and tucks both the photo and the badge into the pocket of her coat.

She continues searching the apartment fruitlessly. As she is going through his workroom, she hears voices at the door. She prays that it’s just the police coming to check his apartment, but the voices speak with the heavy accent of ADVENT agents.

Unfortunately, it meant she was surely in for a fight.

Whoever is speaking enters the apartment as she hears the door slam shut behind them. Tatiana looks around and spots a wrench lying out on one of Shen’s tables, so she grabs it and beings to ready herself.

She presses herself against the wall of Shen’s apartment, trying to keep her breaths low and even. The footsteps grow ever closer to her, so she tightens her grip on the wrench. She closes her eyes and listens, counting the moments until the steps are just on the other side of the wall.

Tatiana spins around and cracks the wrench over the intruder’s head causing him to stumble back into his partner. They stare at each other stunned for a moment, then hell breaks loose.

The man she hadn’t hit draws his gun and fires at her and she just narrowly ducks behind the wall again. She turns around just in time to see the first agent rushing at her and punch him in the gut.

It slows him down, but it doesn’t stop him from throwing a punch of his own. It connects with her jaw and she can taste blood in her mouth. The man grabs her while she is stunned and gets his arm around her neck.

She grabs his arm and tilts her head as far back as she can to try and grab a breath. Without warning, she stomps on his foot and drags him over her shoulder, tossing him back into the other spy. Using the space she’s made for herself, she runs back into Shen’s workroom and grabs a length of chain that had been left out.

The men are quick on her heels, appearing in the doorway just heartbeats later. She throws the wrench at the one with the gun to knock it out of his hands. The other manages to kick her in the chest, causing her to stumble back while she wraps the chain around her knuckles. She rushes forward again and clocks him in the jaw, then immediately turns and does the same to the other spy.

She grabs the one with the gun and puts him into a headlock before he can recover from the punch. He tries to elbow her to let him go, but she grabs his wrist and shoves his arm away before he can. She forces his hand up and shoots his partner twice in the chest.

He throws his head back and and hits Tatiana’s nose. She releases his grip on him and stumbles back, bringing a hand to her face. Blood covers her glove when she pulls it away, but she doesn’t have time to do anything about it as the spy takes aim at her again.

She rushes forward and punches the man in the elbow of his extended arm to knock his aim off. He still manages to get a shot off, but it only grazes her arm. She grabs the gun before he can take aim again and toss it aside.

The spy grabs her by the front of her coat and tosses her onto a table, breaking it. He takes the opportunity to run for his gun, so she drags herself up and tackles him to the ground, leaving them both just out of reach.

She quickly unwraps the chain from around her hand before he can throw her off and loops it around his throat. She tightens it quickly and he grabs at it in a desperate attempt to catch a breath.

“Where is the List?” she hisses lowly, panting for breath herself.

“I- I don’t-”

“I know ADVENT killed him!” She tightens the chain.

The spy shakes his head frantically. “He was already dead,” he gasps.

Tentatively, she puts some slack on the chain. “What do you mean, he was already dead?”

He gasps for a breath. “Shen was dead when we found him, and the List wasn’t on him. We thought it would be here.”

“It’s not,” she answers. She tightens the chain again. “ _Who killed him?_ ”

“I- I don’t know- A petty thief, maybe.”

Tatiana considers the information for a second, then lets go of one end of the chain to punch the spy in the face, knocking him unconscious. She gets off of him and picks up his gun, then shoots him in the head.

She tosses the gun back down and heads over to the balcony. She takes a moment to estimate the height, then climbs over the railing and drops safely to the ground. She takes a second to dust herself off and pull her scarf up over her bruising jaw, then stalks back off towards the hotel.

 

* * *

 

Tatiana comes out of the bathroom and she knows that something is not right. She pads forward, keeping her footsteps as quiet as possible as she enters the living space. Movement out of the corner of her eye catches her attention so on habit she punches the intruder in the gut and slams them into the wall.

“Just me, sorry,” John groans.

She sighs and releases him, letting him slump against the wall. “Don’t sneak up on me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He looks her up and down, noting the fresh bruises. “I take it you found _something_ at Shen’s apartment. Or someone.”

“ADVENT. Apparently, they didn’t kill him.” Her voice is flat, but there’s a tightness to it that neither of them can ignore. She stalks over to the fridge and pulls out a beer, popping the cap off on the edge of a table. “Tell me you got some good news from Rov-r?”

He sighs. “Did you know that Rov-r is just a teenage girl?” he asks, raising his eyebrows.

One of her eyebrows pops up curiously, but she does not interrupt.

“I don’t want to get her involved, but apparently she had looked at the List before handing it off to Shen. She _memorized_ it.”

“ADVENT’s going to try and kill her,” Tatiana says finishes. She takes another drink.

“We have to get her out of here. And if we can’t find the List, the Council should be happy with her, instead.”

She shakes her head. “All the Council will want from her is the name of the Commander, and then they’ll find a way to keep her silent. It’s best if we find the Commander ourselves and get Rov-r somewhere safe.”

John’s brows furrow. “You don’t really think the Council would kill a teenager, do you?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them.”

Silence falls between them for a few too long moments.

“We have to find where the List went regardless. We can’t have it fall into ADVENT’s hands. Rov-r knowing it just complicates matters,” Tatiana says. She collapses onto the foot of her bed.

“Any idea who stole it from Shen?”

“The agents I ran into at his apartment said that it looked like he’d been mugged. It could be _anywhere_.”

John rubs his temples. “Maybe we should start with getting Rov-r out of the city. At least if we know she’s safe, the Council won’t be too angry,” he suggests.

Tatiana pauses for a moment, then nods. “I know someone who might be able to help with that. I’ll set up an appointment with her for tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan. Good night,” he says.

She lifts her beer as if to wave goodbye as he exits.


	2. Důvěrnost

Tatiana motions for him to get into the driver’s seat.

“I don’t know my way around the city. That’s why the Council sent you with me,” John retorts.

She rolls her eyes and sighs. “I can navigate. You have to drive, though.”

He looks at her and tilts his head inquisitively. “You can’t drive, can you?”

“I’ve always lived in big cities. I never _needed_ to learn to drive.”

“Oh my god,” he laughs. “One of the Council’s top spies, and you _can’t drive_.”

“Just shut up and get in,” she growls. She climbs into the passenger’s seat and slams the door closed.

Fortunately, John gets into the driver’s seat without further complaint, though he still has to work to muffle his laughter.

“Do you at least remember where Rov-r lived? We need to pick her up first.”

“That much I can do on my own,” he assures, turning the engine on.

 

* * *

 

“Why did you have us park so far away?” Rov-r asks. She pulls her coat a bit tighter around her to keep the chill off.

“We’re meeting a good friend of mine. I don’t want to put her at any more risk than she already is,” Tatiana explains. “Parking nearby would draw more attention to her than I’d like.”

“It’s not as though walking right in is much better,” Rov-r mutters.

Neither of the agents say anything and continue forward in silence. After a block, John seems to remember that they’re supposed to be a couple and grabs her hand. She jerks her hand in surprise, but quickly forces herself to relax.

Tatiana leads them down a few more turns, and after a quick check over her shoulder, she knocks leads them into an older apartment building.

Rov-r glances at John as she leads them up the stairs, but he just offers her a shrug and a gesture to go ahead.

Tatiana knocks on a door and calls something in German, to his surprise. They hear scuffling from inside the apartment, and then the door is thrown open to reveal a woman in a lab coat.

“Tatiana!”

Tatiana drops John’s hand to throw her arms around the woman and press a kiss to her cheek. The woman returns the motions warmly. They share an exchange in German, then the woman motions for them all to enter.

“This is Moira,” Tatiana introduces once the door is closed. “Moira, this is Bradford, Rov-r.”

“It is nice to meet you,” Moira says, shaking their hands. She lets her gaze linger on Rov-r for a few moments. “You look like-”

Tatiana lays a hand on Moira’s arm, interrupting her thought. She shakes her head and Moira gives a slight nod in return after a moment.

Rov-r crosses her arms and closes in on herself.

“We need to get Rov-r out of here,” John says, trying to bring the conversation back on track. “Mercier said you could sort something out for that?”

Moira nods and turns to organize a pile of papers on her table. “I deal with a number of shipments throughout the month. I’ll be dealing with an exchange tonight for my clinic, and my associates can ensure that she gets across the border unseen. It’s out of my hands from after that.”

“An exchange?” John asks, raising an eyebrow.

Moira grins widely at him, and Tatiana looks at her as though she’s the sun. “Specimens, for research.”

Rov-r blanches.

“You know what, I’d rather not know,” he says.

“Regardless, you have contacts that can get her back to the States, don’t you?” Tatiana asks, turning towards John again.

He eyes her, raising an eyebrow. “I’m sure they would like more than a few hours notice, but yes.”

“And where am I supposed to go once I get there?” Rov-r asks.

“To where Shen was supposed to go,” Tatiana answers quickly.

Rov-r looks at her, and after a moment she nods once. “Will I need a passport?” she asks, glancing first to Moira, then to John. “I don’t have one anymore.”

“My people can assist with that,” Moira assures first. “I had needed to take your picture, regardless, Rov-r. My contacts will want to know who you are.”

“Are you sure I can trust these people?” she asks, glancing at Tatiana then to John.

She nods. “I trust Moira with my life. If she trusts these people, I know they’re good,” she assures.

John nods as well, seemingly content with the arrangement.

Rov-r turns back to Moira, who tries to smile gently at her. She picks up a camera and beckons the teen to follow her. After another moment’s hesitation, she follows.

“Have you heard anything on the List?” she asks lowly once the other two are out of the room.

“I don’t have any contacts in the region, so anything I hear is all second-hand. Or it would be, if any of my contacts had heard anything themselves,” he replies, shaking his head. “I take it you haven’t gotten anything either?”

“Spent most of the night setting this up,” she explains with a shrug.

He raises an eyebrow. “Would Moira know anything?”

“Probably not. She’s not a spy.”

“No, but she does apparently smuggle things in and out of the country.”

Tatiana holds back a laugh at that. “I suppose you may have a point. She may know something of ADVENT’s movements.”

“How do you even know her, anyway?”

“We were together for a while.”

He shoots her a glance from the corner of his eye. “Didn’t know the Council teamed up spies and smugglers.”

“Not like that. I mean we had a _relationship_ ,” she says slowly. She mutters something under her breath while he processes the shock.

Fortunately, before he can make a further fool of himself, Moira and Rov-r return to the room. “I’ll have everything set at our usual meeting point, Tatiana,” Moira says.

She flashes a smile at the other woman. “Thank you. I hate to be a bother, but have you heard anything about ADVENT’s activities in the past few days?

“I have not heard anything in particular,” she says regretfully.

“I thought so-”

“Actually, would you happen to know where someone might sell off some jewelry without question? A pawnshop, or something?” John asks suddenly.

Moira regards him for a moment, then grins. “I know several. Would you like a list?”

“Please.”

As Moira turns to grab a pen and paper, John shoots Tatiana grin. She in return just scowls at him.

 

* * *

 

“Do you trust her?” Rov-r asks lowly, pretending to look at a shelf full of mechanical knicknacks.

The three were scoping out the fifth pawn shop nearby to where Agent Shen had been killed, aptly named the Grey Market. For all her claims about not being charming, Tatiana was holding her own quite well chatting up the shopkeep in Czech, giving John and Rov-r a moment to speak without being overheard.

He glances over at her, one eyebrow raised. “We were assigned to work together. I have to trust her somewhat,” he says.

Rov-r picks up a knick knack that almost immediately falls apart scrunches her nose up. “There’s a lot of ‘Tatiana’s that show up on the List.”

“And you think they’re all her?”

“Only most of them.”

“John, Milačku!” Tatiana calls, interrupting them. She rests her hand on his shoulder and presses against his side once he’s joined her. “You were looking for a new watch, right? Mr Volikov keeps his watches behind the counter.”

He quickly leans in to press a kiss to her cheek and smile warmly at her. “Thanks, honey.”

“What sort of watch did you have in mind,” Volikov says gruffly.

Tatiana gives his shoulder a squeeze and steps back to allow John to work his magic. She approaches Rov-r, looking a solemn. “Rov-r, may I speak with you a moment?” Tatiana asks quietly.

Rov-r looks towards John, then nods slightly.

“I’m sorry about everything that’s happened, Lily,” she says guiding them closer to the back of the shop. “Your father was a good man, and one of my closest friends.”

“That’s not going to bring him back, unfortunately,” she retorts, glaring at Tatiana.

She bows her head and pulls a small picture out of her pocket. “Raymond would have wanted you to have this,” she says, offering it to her.

Rov-r takes the picture and looks down at the smiling faces of her and her parents. “Dad trusted you, and _your_ people tried to kill him. Why should I trust you?”

“You know who your father worked for, yes?” Tatiana waits to see her nod. She sticks a hand into her coat and draws something out from an inside pocket. “I’m not proud of the things I’ve done, but I’ve had my reasons for doing them. With any luck, this will end soon.”

She cups Rov-r’s hands in hers and drops a small badge into the girl’s hands, then folds her hands closed. “That one’s mine. Keep it on you. I don’t know what lies ahead, but that will get you where you need to go,” she assures.

Rov-r looks down at the badge, then back up at the woman. Before she can say anything, John is approaching them again.

“Any luck?” Tatiana asks, smiling like nothing had happened.

John grins widely.

Despite herself, Tatiana grins too.

 

* * *

 

Tatiana leads them around the city, indulging John on some of his touristy desires. By the time night falls, she coerces them onto the metro, insisting that it was almost time to meet with Moira once more. They walk arm in arm, and Tatiana’s other hand rests lightly on Rov-r’s back.

John’s fingers squeeze hers as they get off of the train and walk down the platform, so Tatiana tilts her head to the side.

“We’re being followed,” he says.

She turns her head to try and get a glimpse of the people behind them in the reflections of some glass. For just a moment, she can see a man focused solely on Rov-r. She draws the girl in front of her to block his line of sight.

“Don’t worry,” she assures her quietly. “Stay with me and you'll be fine.”

She leads them to an abandoned portion of the subway. The men follow them up the stairs, so she tightens her grip on Rov-r.

“Will there be much cover outside?” John asks her lowly.

“There will be… some. Enough for Rov-r at least.”

Rov-r huffs. “That’s comforting.”

“I _w_ _ill_ get you to safety, Rov-r,” Tatiana says, squeezing her shoulder.

The moment they reach the surface, she pushes Rov-r towards a nearby building for cover and draws her weapon. She spins around and readies her aim, and the moment the first enemy locks eyes with her she shoots them clean through the head.

It, of course, makes the other five men scatter, drawing their own weapons. One of them is smart enough to charge directly at her with his knife in hand.

The man immediately knees her in the gut and knocks her pistol out of her hand while she’s doubled over. She grabs his wrist, but not before the tip of the knife digs into her shoulder.

“ _John!_ ” she shouts. A brief glance over her shoulder shows he’s already grappling with two of the other men. It also reveals one of the others coming to grab her from behind.

She lets the man grab her and uses the momentum to kick the man in front of her off, directly into the last of the agents. While the two are picking themselves up from each other, she stomps on the foot of the one still holding her and spins around to elbow him in the face. She grabs his shirt to punch his face a couple more times, then practically throws him into the agent who was about to stab John from behind.

“Thanks!” he calls, stabbing the one he was dealing with in the neck, killing him.

Tatiana looks for her gun, but before she can run and grab it the agent she’d knocked the other into earlier grabs her from behind and throws her to the ground. She covers her face with an arm as he kicks her and grabs his ankle. She yanks him hard and rolls over, dragging him to the ground with her. She leaps to her feet and manages to kick him in the face once before the agent with the knife spins her around and punches her in the face.

Out of the corner of her eye while she’s reeling, she spots Rov-r duck out of the way of a shot fired at her. She has to trust that she can stay in cover long enough, unfortunately.

She turns back around and punches the agent in the gut a few times, then grabs him and slams him down into the one who was just standing up again. She pries the knife from his hand and stabs him in the shoulder blade. She digs it in hard, but the agent manages enough strength to push her off and roll over.

She stumbles back with the knife just in time to see one of the agents stalking towards Rov-r, who had apparently grabbed Tatiana’s gun at some point in the fight.

Two gunshots go off, and two wounds blossom into red flowers. One in the hip of the agent John was grappling with, creating enough of an opening for him to slash his throat.

The other was in Rov-r’s gut.

Without hesitation Tatiana throws the knife at the agent with the gun, the blade of it sinking into his chest.

“Get her to the drop point, _now!_ ” she shouts at John. “It’s just ahead! Moira can help!”

John pauses only long enough to toss her his pistol. He runs to Rov-r’s side and presses her hands to the wound. He gathers her up in his arms and takes off down the street.

Tatiana shoots the agent that shot Rov-r through the head. It’s not the death he deserves, but it will have to do.

One of the remaining two men finally gets to his feet again and headbutts her in the chin, knocking her briefly off balance.

“Oh, fuck _off_ ,” she snarls. She elbows the man and throws him into a tree, which gives the last agent just enough time to stand up as well. He runs for their comrade and picks up the gun from his body. He takes aim and shoots, but only manages to graze her side. She raises her pistol to take aim, only for the other agent to grab her from behind once more.

He drags her around and stabs at her chest, though fortunately she’s already in too much pain to know how deep it’s gone. She grabs at the arm around her neck and stomps on his foot to get him to release her.

She throws him to the ground with the little strength she has remaining, takes aim, and puts a bullet into his head.

Simultaneously, she feels something hit her already wounded shoulder.

Tatiana glares at the remaining again and quickly empties the last rounds into him, ensuring he was dead.

She stumbles over to a tree and slumps to the ground to catch her breath. She closes her eyes and after what seems like a moment, John is there, shaking her good shoulder. There’s a trail of blood smeared under his nose and on his chin, and in the dark she can see some bruises starting to take shape.

 _It’s almost attractive_ , she thinks wearily.

“You look like shit,” she says instead, cracking a smile.

“You don’t look any better, but we have to get moving,” he says. He offers his hand to help her back to her feet. After a moment, he also takes his coat off and hands it to her.

“I don’t need it,” she assures.

“You’ll draw less attention if not all of your clothing is covered in blood,” he retorts.

She pauses for a moment. “Point taken.” She takes it and shrugs it on.

He grabs her hand and they start walking back towards their hotel.

 

* * *

 

She is woken by the scent of coffee and tea wafting through her door, and not a moment after she'd opened her eyes there was was a knock. Reluctantly, she drags herself out of bed and tosses the door open.

“You look like shit,” John says, smirking. He hands her the mug of tea.

She takes a tentative sip. It's still piping hot, but it's her favorite and there's no indication of anything wrong with it. “How did you-”

“I listened closely when you ordered the other day. And I listened to other people this morning until I figured I had the pronunciation right enough to order,” he replies casually. “Let me in, I've got some news.”

Too tired to complain, Tatiana steps aside and allows him in. “You found something out about the List?” she asks hopefully. “Find out anything more about our buyer? About this Dvorak man?”

He grimaces and shakes his head. “My contacts just got word to me that Rov-r didn’t make it.”

Silence settles between them for a moment.

Tatiana gently sets her mug down on the table, then slams her fist into the nearest wall. “God _fucking_ damn it!” she shouts. She rubs her hands over her face and screams, only to be cut short by a pained grunt as she accidentally pulls at her split lip, making it bleed once more.

“Have you taken care of your wounds at all?” he asks incredulously.

She pulls her hands back from her face and looks at the bit of blood that had welled up into her palm. “A bit. I was exhausted.”

“You’re a disaster,” John says, exasperated. “Sit down, let me patch you up.”

She sighs, but nonetheless picks her tea up and sits on the edge of the bed. He joins her a moment later with her first aid kit in hand, already digging through the limited supplies she was able to bring along with them.

“It’s not your fault she died,” he says, his words just as gentle as his efforts at tending her wounds.

“It rather is.” She sneaks a sip of tea before he can touch her split lip. “My contacts, my mistakes. Should’ve planned better. I owed that much to her.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You say that like you knew her beforehand.”

Tatiana hesitates, picking her words carefully. “I didn’t know her, specifically, but I knew her parents. They were good people,” she says at last.

“I’m sorry,” he says after a moment.

“You tried. That’s enough for me.”

He finishes patching what he can in silence. “Any other wounds?”

She hums for a moment, then sets her tea aside so she can pull her shirt off. “I’m awake enough now to handle these, if it’s a bother. One of us should be actually getting to work trying to get information on Dvorak,” she says, a faint smirk pulling at her lips.

John looks her up and down, clearly trying to keep his gaze solely to the handful of crusted over wounds. “The one on your shoulder will be awkward to do on your own, at least let me do that one,” he offers.

“Go right ahead,” Tatiana says. She swaps her tea to her other hand and leans back to give him a somewhat easier time working on her shoulder.

Instead, he goes to clean the wound that grazed her side first. “It won’t take too much longer,” he says.

She raises an eyebrow incredulously, but does not say anything. Not until he ghosts his fingers up along her abs to the stab wound on her chest, at least. “And that one?” she asks teasingly.

“Looked deep. Really should have dealt with that one last night,” he states, not meeting her gaze. He cleans it and quickly stitches it back together, then finally moves along to her shoulder.

“I feel like I should offer to bandage you up to,” she says at last. Her words finally make him look at her, just in time to see her pointedly look up his body.

He gives a little amused huff. “Since the Council threw us into working together, I’ve been wondering how you got to be one of their top spies,” he teases, smirking. “I took care of myself last night, like you _should_ have.”

She pouts, but there is no annoyance behind it. “Next time I’ll let you deal with finishing up the fight, let you see how it feels,” she retorts.

“Is that a promise?”

“Of course.”


	3. Důvĕra

They manage to fall into an easy and somewhat convincing routine. John waits in the hallway in the morning for her to be ready, and once she emerges Tatiana loops her arm around his and leads him throughout the city. She makes initial contact with their targets, passes them off to him once the conversation is in English, and when they inevitably get no information they do a bit of sightseeing.

It takes nearly a week, but eventually they catch a break. Dvorak would be hosting a party in his own home. All they needed to do was forge an invitation, mingle long enough to find the watch, and escape before they were noticed.

It shouldn’t be a problem for two of the Council’s best spies, supposedly.

Tatiana fiddles almost nervously with his fingers on the table and continues to scribble out some notes on a bit of paper. In such a crowded cafe, no one would have paid any mind if they stopped touching each other, but neither of them made any move to stop.

“So we’re certainly “invited” to this party?” she asks, glancing up from her notes just enough to raise an eyebrow at him.

“Yes. It’s not my first time forging documents. I’ve got everything ready.”

“ _Everything_?” she asks. “Even something suitable to wear?”

He suppresses rolls his eyes. “I have a suit, yes.” He looks at her for a moment, realization dawning on him. “You don’t have a dress, do you?”

Her pen stops its scribbling so she can look up at him with a flat glare. “I don’t, alright? But I have a plan. I just needed to know if I needed to get _you_ something to wear, too.”

John twists his hand around to squeeze her fingers gently. “You can approve my suit, if you must. As for you dress, tell me what you need me to and I’ll help,” he assures with a smile.

Without hesitation, she stows her things into her bag and stands. “We should head out, then. Stop by the hotel first to grab your suit, then we’ll sort out my dress,” she says.

“It’s barely two, though. Do you really need that much time to get ready?”

“ _I_ don’t.”

She doesn’t offer any more of an explanation before pulling him out of the cafe.

 

* * *

 

Tatiana is noticeably antsy as they climb the stairs, not anything at all like the person he'd grown so accustomed to spending his time with. She knocks on the door and squeezes his hand, more so to assure herself than anything else.

After a moment, the door is thrown open to reveal a woman about half a foot shorter than Tatiana but strikingly similar in appearance.

“Tanička!” she shouts, throwing her arms around her.

Tatiana drops his hand to wrap her arms around her as well. The two women speak briefly in Czech before finally they separate and are allowed in.

“John, this is my sister, Lydie. Lydie, John,” she introduces quickly.

“Nice to meet you.” Lydie offers her hand, and he shakes it. He shoots a worried glance at Tatiana as she turns to grab something.

“You brought your sister into this?” he asks lowly.

“She doesn’t know anything other than that I need a dress and some makeup done,” she shoots back quickly. By the time her sister turns around again, she’s smiling once more.

“Make yourself comfortable, John. I will have Tanička ready soon,” Lydie says, gesturing to the sofa. Without waiting to see what he does, she grabs her sister’s arm and all but drags her away down a hallway.

Lydie appears first after an hour and a half. She walks around the sofa, practically bouncing on her feet to grab his hand and drag him up. For being so much smaller than her sister, she is no less strong as she’s easily able to pull him down hallway and ready him in front of a door. She knocks, then steps aside, hands over her mouth to hide a wide grin.

If he had not seen her enter the same door earlier, he would not have been able to guess that the woman that opened the door was Tatiana at first glance. Most of her outfits around town had included skirts and low heeled shoes, yes, but he has never seen her in something like this. She is wearing a deep green floor length dress, high heels, and her hair and makeup had been done beautifully.

“You look… nice,” he says after an embarrassingly long moment.

Lydie smothers a snicker.

“Thank Lydie for that,” she replies quickly. She shifts uncomfortably on her feet and steps forward to wrap an arm around his own. She grips his arm tightly, like she was afraid of falling.

On a second look, she was still obviously Tatiana. Something had always seemed off-kilter about her and this just exacerbated the problem. Dresses made her uncomfortable in her own skin.

“You two look so _cute_ together!” Lydie squeals. “I’m sure you’ll be the talk of the party.”

She leans against him and chuckles. “You know I’d rather keep a low profile.”

“Of course, of course. Still, you two are gorgeous. I won’t hold you any longer.” With that Lydie escorts them back down to their car, giving them both hugs before watching them drive off.

Silence fills the car for a few minutes, neither of them knowing what to say.

“I didn’t know you had family here,” John says at last, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. One leg sticks out of the slit in the dress so she can affix a knife to her leg with ease. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Preparing,” she answers flatly. She adjusts the knives once more, then switches legs to strap another knife on. Once she’s done, she adjusts her dress so it covers her legs once more. From the corner of his eye, he can see her hesitate, considering her answer to his initial question. “I’m half Czech,” she admits softly. “I grew up not far from here. Most of my family moved back before ADVENT took over.

“Oh. That explains a bit,” he says. Like why the Council had been so afraid of her abandoning them, he thinks. “I take it you have more than just work reasons to dislike ADVENT, then.”

“I despise them with every bone in my body,” she answers. There’s a glint in her eye that speaks to years of secrets and anger and  _blood_. “I’d do anything to destroy them, to stop them from taking over the entire world.”

“You seem like you could do it.”

“But do you trust me enough to do it without destroying everyone else at the same time?” She shoots him a faint smile.

He doesn’t hesitate. “I trust you.”

Her smile grows. “Lets hope it stays that way.”

 

* * *

 

“Mr. Becker and Ms. Novotna,” the man at the entrance to the mansion says. He looks up from the card and inspects them carefully.

They both smile at the man and Tatiana presses herself a little more firmly into John’s side.

“How do you know Mr. Dvorak, Mr. Becker?”

“We were good friends in University, though we have only recently reconnected,” John explains.

Tatiana tries not to laugh at his mock German accent.

The man glares at them, but reluctantly lets them in. As soon as they are inside and out of range, they sigh in relief but don’t put any additional space between them.

“One hurdle down,” she murmurs.

“Now just to see if we can find this watch.”

They wander into the party hand in hand and begin to mingle. Fortunately, no one seems to question their relationship to the host. To Tatiana’s shame, though, many do compliment their appearance, including a few partygoers they recognize as ADVENT agents.

She tries not to fret too much as John leaves her side mid-conversation and instead focus on the guests she was speaking with, as well as keep one eye on Mr Dvorak. John reappears a few minutes later, a glass of champagne in each hand. He offers one to her and leans in to press a kiss to her cheek.

“It’s not beer, but it’s all they have. You looked like you needed something to loosen up,” he whispers before stepping back.

She smiles genuinely at him and takes the glass. “Thanks.” She takes a sip, then turns back to the other guests and smiles. She says something to them in Czech, then grabs his arm and draws him away from the group.

“He’s not wearing the watch,” she says before downing half of her glass in a single gulp.

“You’re sure?”

She nods and gestures at him so he can turn in time to see him shake an ADVENT agent’s hand. His wrist is bare.

“It must be upstairs somewhere, since it’s all blocked off.”

“We just have to find it before ADVENT does.”

They both take a moment to drink. John sets his glass aside, then takes her glass and sets it aside as well. “Let’s go,” he murmurs. He grabs her hand and quickly leads her up the nearest set of stairs while no one’s looking.

Many of the rooms upstairs are unlocked, but when they open the doors they are also mostly barren, filled with only the least amount of furniture. They each take a side of the hallway and quietly break into the rooms, but come back empty handed each time. At the end of the hall, just around the corner do they finally run into a locked room. John tries to force the door open, but it doesn’t budge.

“Here, let me,” Tatiana whispers hurriedly. She tugs two pins out of her hair and straightens them out. “Just keep guard for me.”

He nods and steps aside, one hand falling to the knife on his belt. “How’d you learn to pick locks?” he asks, glancing down at her.

She pauses in her work just long enough to smirk up at him. “Not all of your fellow spies were boy scouts back in the day. Most of my teachers called me a delinquent,” she teases.

“Everyone’s got their skills,” he muses. He hears footsteps and cautiously peeks around the corner to see a handful of ADVENT agents quickly approaching their position. “You should hurry your skills up, we’re about to have company.”

“I’m _working_ on it!”

John draws his knife and prepares himself to hold off the other agents for as long as possible. The moment the first one appears around the corner, he socks him in the face and drives the knife into his gut. He throws him back into the next agent, forcing them both to stumble back.

The third agent to run in is a woman who manages to grab the wrist of the hand holding the knife before he can slash, wrenching it to the side, ineffectively. He goes to throw another punch, only to have that hand grabbed, too. They grapple for a few moments, the woman managing to spin them around enough for the last ADVENT agent to grab him from behind.

“ _Tanya!”_

“ _Give me a second!”_

John kicks the woman off of him and she fortunately does not have enough of a grip on him to take the knife out of his grasp. He brings it down and cuts into whatever he can of the man holding him. It’s not enough to get him to let go, however.

They spin around again so he’s facing the first two agents again. The one he’d stabbed was still tending to his wound, but the second steps forward and punches him in the face a couple times.

Something hits the man holding him, forcing him to release John. It gives him enough of an opening to kick away the agent punching him. He looks over his shoulder to see Tatiana beating the shit out of the man who was holding him with one of her heels.

She pins him down against the floor with her free hand fisted in his shirt and one knee on his chest. Tatiana beats his face repeatedly with her heel until the tip of it is covered in blood. Once the agent has been visibly knocked unconscious, she hits him once more, then stands up, kicking her other shoe aside as well.

Before anyone else can get the jump on her, she reaches under the hem of her dress and draws one of her knives. Just in time, as the woman grabs a fistful of her hair and drags her backwards into the wall, slamming her against it. Tatiana grabs at the hand in her hair and swings with the knife, feeling it just clipping the other woman’s side.

John throws the already stabbed man into her, both ADVENT agents dropping into a pile at the doorway they’d worked so hard on opening.

“Fuck,” Tatiana groans, rubbing at the back of her head briefly. She looks up and sees John choking the last of the agents in the hallway, so she forces herself to her feet and darts into the room.

She tackles the man just as the two are standing up again, getting an arm around his neck and dragging him off to the side. She plunges the knife into his leg to prevent him from fighting back and squeezes at his neck to choke him. The woman punches her in the face, forcing her to release him, though. The man stumbles back towards the doorway, coughing.

The woman grabs Tatiana again, throwing her into a table and knocking all of the items off of the top of it. Before she can stand again, the agent is on top of her. She manages to get two punches in on her face before she can grab one of her wrists and try to fend her off.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tatiana sees John enter the room and immediately punch the last man, though the woman manages to punch her again before she can see if he’s knocked out or not.

With the strength she has left, she manages to roll the two of them over, pinning the woman to the floor and getting a punch in herself. Something changes as she recovers from the punch though, and suddenly a foot connects with Tatiana’s gut. With her newfound freedom, the woman scrambles to the side and from the wreckage of the office plucks out a shining gold watch.

Tatiana quickly draws her second knife and digs it into the woman’s shoulder blade. She gets an arm around the woman’s middle then slashes at the hand holding the watch, forcing her to drop it. The woman elbows her in the face, but Tatiana resists releasing her and instead forces her to fall back with her.

Only once her back is firmly against the ground does Tatiana release her grip on the woman, allowing her to push herself up just enough. Once she has the space, she plants her feet on the woman’s chest and kicks back hard, throwing her practically halfway across the room with a single move. She quickly gets up and punches the woman hard in the head to knock her out.

Before looking to see if there was anyone else about to attack, she turns and swipes the watch off the floor. After a quick but careful examination, she determines it to be the List.

“I have it,” she says, groaning. She turns to look at John, who is dragging the bodies of the two agents in the hallway into the room.

“Good,” he says, dropping the last one in a heap. He grins at her something fierce and burning. “Let’s get out of here before these lot wake up again.”

The lock the door behind them with the ADVENT agents inside, buying them just a sliver of time should they wake up anytime soon. Tatiana pauses only long enough to shove her shoes back on, not caring that one was bloodied.

“Can you climb out a window in those?” he asks lowly as they head down the hallway once more. He glances pointedly at her shoes.

“It wouldn’t be the first time-”

She is cut off suddenly by John pressing her against the wall and kissing her. He brings one hand up to cradle her face, stinging a bit as it covers some freshly forming bruises. His other hand rests on her hip and he pins her to the wall with his entire body.

 _He is a surprisingly good kisser,_ she thinks.

After a moment, she hears footsteps and quickly slides the watch into his pocket. She does not remove her hand, and brings her other up to wrap around the back of his neck.

“Excuse me!” a woman says.

They jump apart, acting the part of embarrassed.

“You aren’t supposed to be up here,” the woman says.

“Yes, ma’am, sorry,” John says. “We’ll be right down.”

She eyes them warily, but does not make any disparaging comments. Instead, she turns and stalks back off towards the main party.

The moment she is out of earshot, they both sigh in relief.

“Sorry about that,” he says quickly, stepping back from her fully.

“Don’t worry about it, shit happens. Now let’s go.”

She grabs his arm and practically drags him back to the window they’d scoped out earlier. He pries it open quickly and helps her go through first, making sure she made it to the ground safely before climbing down himself.

They all but run back to their car, and the moment they shut the doors behind them they take off back to the relative safety of their hotel.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Tatiana laughs, pressing herself against John as they climb the stairs back to their rooms.

His arm works its way around her back and his hand settles on her hip, helping to hold her closer. “I’m pretty sure you killed that one with your heel. I didn’t know that was even _possible_ ,” he laughs.

“You’ve got to be more creative when you don’t have pockets to store all your cool gadgets,” she retorts, giving him a playful nudge.

“Does being creative only apply to ways to kill people?”

The question takes her aback as they pause between their doors. It’s either the exhaustion or the adrenaline from the fight encouraging bad decisions, but she can’t help but to think about how soft his lips were when they kissed.

“It definitely applies to more than that,” she says at last.

She grabs the front of his jacket and pulls him into a kiss full of hunger and passion. Their hands quickly tangle themselves in hair and fabric, and she presses him hard into the door of his room.

At some point, he manages to get the lock open allowing them to stumble inside without putting any space between them. The moment the door is closed again, she pushes him down onto the bed, lording herself over him.

Her hubris is quickly taken advantage of, and before she knows it she is on her back with his mouth on her neck, and her mind goes blank.


	4. Pravda

John creeps back into his room just before dawn in silence. Tatiana is still fast asleep in bed, her hair half splayed over her face. She looks almost adorable.

Rov-r and the Council’s warnings ring in his head,  _ don’t trust her _ . He wishes now that he’d taken that advice a bit more to heart, but it’s far too late for that.

He quietly lays his coat over the back of a chair and creeps to sit beside her. Gently, he brushes her hair away from her face.

It’d be all too easy to slit her throat and earn the praise of the Council.

Tatiana shifts slightly and cracks her eyes open. “Dobré ráno,” she greets softly, smiling at him. Her gaze wanders to the watch on his wrist then back up to him. “You’re up early. What time is it?”

“I went ahead and called the Council to get an extraction ready for us by tonight. Didn’t seem right to waste any time when all of ADVENT is going to be trying to hunt us down. It’s nearly five-thirty.”

A hint of a frown pulls at her lips at the mention of an extraction. “Good idea,” she says. She pauses for a moment, then a smirk replaces the slight frown. One of her hands ghosts over the front of his shirt. “Extraction isn’t until tonight? So we have all day to ourselves?”

There’s a devious glint behind her eyes that reminds him of the night before, of the promise of ADVENT blood. He can’t remember the last time he’d seen anyone working under the Council so passionate.

Despite his knowledge, he grins. “All day.”

Her hand curls into a fist and drags him down.

 

* * *

 

John looks out across the length of Charles Bridge to where Old Town was slowly being lit up by streetlights. Even with the jumble of old architecture and modern buildings, it was a sight to behold. “This is gorgeous. I can’t believe your family just… left this,” he says.

Tatiana shrugs and presses into his side to ward off the chill. “My mom made the best decision at the time, and hometown’s not as pretty,” she explains sheepishly. Another frown tugs down at her lips.“There’s not as many tourists as I was expecting, honestly.”

“I’m sure your hometown is just as beautiful,” he replies, glancing over at her. “Should there be more? It’s cold and getting dark, I’d assume most people are heading home.”

“The bridge used to packed, day and night. The only time you could get a nice picture was hellishly early in the mornings. ADVENT’s presence must have taken it’s toll on travelers,” she muses. 

He untangles his fingers from hers and wraps his arm around her shoulders to give her a squeeze. “Now that the List is safe, I’m sure ADVENT will fall soon enough. The Council can bring the Commander into custody thanks to us,” he says, his words carefully measured.

Tatiana is silent for a few long moments. “That will be the one disappointment the Council has with us, that we didn’t eliminate the Commander,” she says, not looking up to meet his eye. “I would have liked to stop working for them.”

“Would you really leave the Council if you could?”

“Of course. I miss my home, my people. I want to go back to where I belong. I’ve never liked the Council, and they’ve never liked me. It grates on you,” she replies without hesitation.

“Why did you join with the Council if you hated them so much?”

“I had to, like my name.” Before he can ask about her cryptic answer, she looks up at him with something almost pleading flickering in her eyes. “Would you leave the Council, if you could?”

He looks down at her, brow furrowed in confusion. With what he knows, it’s a bad idea, but he can’t help but to consider the possibility of running off with her to somewhere safe. “I wouldn’t be able to escape the Council alive.”

Motion from the corner of their eyes draws their attention before either of them can say anything more. They turn just in time to see a handful of ADVENT agents storming towards them with nothing but hate in their eyes.   
  
“Time to go. Hope you said goodbye to everyone you wanted,” John says. He grabs her hand once more and they take off down the bridge.

The moment they’re back on actual land, Tatiana takes the lead to navigate them through side streets while still heading towards the nearest train station. They eventually come to a brief stop in an abandoned alleyway not far from their destination to catch their breaths.

“If you want to stay, I’ll tell the Council you’re dead,” he says after a moment. “I looked at the List.”

Everything seems to freeze for a moment as she looks at him, panic in her eyes. “I can’t let the Council get their hands on the List,” she says lowly. “If the Council gets the List, then ADVENT will just continue to get worse.”

“As opposed to you continuing to be a double agent for them?”

The hurt in his voice tears at her heart. “You don’t know the full story!”

Four ADVENT agents immediately round the corner. The nearest one lunges forward and grabs John and the next comes for her, but is stopped by a kick in the face. 

She punches the man in the gut twice, then throws him into one of the other agents. She draws her gun and shoots the man she’d just thrown. Before she can get a second shot off to kill one of the other three, the man John had been grappling with collides with her. She stumbles back and hits her head against the wall, but she recovers quickly enough to throw the man off of her and shoot him as well. 

Tatiana shakes her head to clear the haze and when she looks up again, John is fighting with both of the remaining ADVENT agents. He manages to kick one off and extract himself from the grip of the other and he quickly turns to run. She grabs him by the back of his shirt and throws him to the ground. 

“You aren’t taking the List to the Council!” she snaps.

The one of the two agents grabs her and slams her into the wall again while the other, takes the opportunity to start beating on John. Tatiana knocks her head back into the man holding her and throws an elbow, forcing him to let go. She turns around just to be hit with a knee to her gut, forcing her to double over and leaving herself open to being punched in the face. 

Regardless, she manages to grab the agent and throw him into the wall. He slumps the the ground in shock, which gives her enough time to shoot him through the head. She takes a moment to catch her breath and turns towards the last agent, still fighting with John.

She knows it’s a bad idea, but she grabs the ADVENT agent and throws him off of John. He takes the opportunity to scramble to his feet and start running. The ADVENT agent grabs her hair and punches her in the face twice, so she kicks him hard in the groin. It loosens his grip on her hair enough for her to pull free and put enough space between them to kick him in the face. 

She raises her gun once more and fires. Before the man can even drop to the ground, she turns and gives chase to John. 

He is only one alleyway over by the time she catches up. She quickly takes aim and fires, hitting him in his lower back and forcing him to stumble to a stop. He leans against the wall as she stalks closer, both of them preparing.

She looks up at a sign on a building down the street and smirks. 

“Hand the List over,  _ Commander _ ,” she growls, turning her attention back to him.

“That’s how you’re going to play it? Accuse me of being the mole so you can get out?” he retorts. 

She raises her gun, but John grabs her wrist and forces it away. He punches her hard in the gut, making her double over once more. He uses the opening to wrench the gun out of her grip entirely and toss it away. 

Tatiana recovers in time to block another punch and throw one of her own at his jaw. He grabs her wrist just after her fist makes contact and uses the momentum to throw her to the ground. 

She kicks out before he can turn to run, tripping him. She takes the opportunity to scramble to her feet and grab her gun once more, but it unfortunately give John time to get on his feet, too.

“I didn’t want to do this,” he says, kicking her back into the wall. “You could have stayed here, with your sister. Just lay low.” He grabs her by the front of her shirt and punches her in the face.

She lets it happen for a moment, then grabs him and forces them around, slamming him into the wall. She knees him in the gut and then throws him down the street, watching as he all but collapses into a pile. “You don’t know the entire story,” she says again.

“I know enough,” he says as he rolls onto his side. He grunts in pain as his body finally protests getting up again. He glances down to see far too much blood soaking into his clothes from the initial bullet wound. He weakly tries to grasp at it to stem the flow of blood but it’s difficult. “I know I should have listened to the Council, to Rov-r when they said not to trust you. You’re more charming than you claim to be.”

He glares up at her as she stalks forward, gun in hand. 

“I  _ trusted _ you,” he spits. “Why did you sell the Council out?”

She ignores him as she kneels to remove the watch from his wrist. She slips the watch into her coat pocket, then draws her fist out and searches for something in his pocket. She takes her hand back after a moment, seemingly not finding anything else of note.

He tries to slap her hands away, but removing any pressure from the wound in his back just made it all the worse. He does notice, however, that her gaze does stray to it, taking in how much blood he’s lost already.

With a shudder, he realizes she’s  _ calculating _ .

“I told you, it’s in my name. I  _ had  _ to.  _ Musil _ jsem,” she answers softly. She takes a few steps back, and just as the light of realization ignites behind his eyes, she raises her gun and fires.

Tatiana takes off hurriedly down the street and disappears into the door under the sign with a woman in a lab coat.

 

* * *

 

She stares up at the image of the Spokesman, hoping her unamused look carries through despite the bruising coloring half of her face. The sooner the debriefing was over, the sooner she could find the time to rest.

“And the List?” the Spokesman asks. 

“The Commander destroyed it,” Tatiana says matter of factly. 

He sighs exasperatedly. “You realize that with only your word that Agent Bradford was the Commander and without the List, the Council cannot offer you any bonus for what you’ve done.”

“I’m aware. I don’t appreciate gifts from the Council anyway.”

“We may, in fact, need to punish you.”

She shrugs. “So be it. But I’m right, you’ll see. No more information will fall into ADVENT hands.”

The Spokesman is silent for a moment, regarding her before the screen suddenly goes black. She stands gratefully and hobbles out of the room.

 

* * *

 

Three days later finds Tatiana sitting in a hotel room in Berlin, still nursing a few bruises across her body. She lounges on the sofa in a dress, drinking a beer. 

The door behind her opens and after a moment the Speaker appears in her peripheral vision. “You look quite uncomfortable with all those wounds,” he says. “You didn’t have to make that quite so difficult for yourself, Commander.”

She shrugs and takes another drink. “I had to work on the fly. I’d like to see you try and do something better,” she retorts, shooting him a flat glare.

“Of course, of course. Hand over the List and I’ll let you enjoy the rest of your evening. You certainly deserve it.”

The Speaker holds out his hand expectantly and she stares at it for a moment. She casually downs the rest of her beer and stands up. She takes her time walking around the sofa to her purse on the entry table. She tosses the watch to the Speaker.

“There you go. Now beat it,” she says, gesturing towards the door.

As if on cue, the door opens again and three of the Speaker’s goons enter.

He examines the watch for a moment, then tosses it aside like a toy. “I know it’s a fake. Please, Commander. Be a professional and don’t make a mess,” the Speaker says, his smile full of poison.

“You’re kidding me,” she groans. Before any of the goons can react, she reaches into her purse again and grabs her pistol. She throws the purse at one of the goons to distract them. With the opening, she takes aim and shoots one of them cleanly through the head. 

She dives out of the way of a bullet behind an armchair. She leans out of cover long enough to shoot one of the men in the gut, but it’s not enough to bring him down completely. The other one rushes forwards and grabs her and throws her out of cover. 

Tatiana quickly kicks out, knocking him to the ground. As fast as her body allows, she rolls over, just dodging another bullet and pushes herself to her feet. She lunges at the goon still standing and elbows the gun out of his grip.

He returns the favor with punch to her already too bruised face. She kicks him backwards into the table, knocking the selection of spirits off of it. She takes aim and fires, placing another bullet cleanly into his head. 

The last remaining goon grabs her by the ankle and forces her onto the floor once more. He climbs atop her to pin her down and starts punching her face repeatedly. She manages to grab one of his wrists to stop him somewhat, then punches him in the gut as hard as she can with her other hand.

It gives her just enough space to slide out. As she does, she kicks him in the groin, hard. She scrambles to grab her pistol once more, then to her feet. She kicks him in the face to ensure he can’t recover in time, then puts a bullet through his heart.

She takes a deep breath, then slowly turns towards the Speaker.

He raises his hands and backs away. “We can look this over, can’t we? Forget this happened? You can go back to Prague, live the life you always wanted,” he stutters.

Tatiana stalks towards him, bloodlust in her eyes. “ _ No _ ,” she hisses lowly. “You are going to pay for everything you’ve done. Every city your people have infiltrated, every life you’ve taken.”

“What are you-”

Before he can finish, she is on top of him, knocking the Speaker to the ground. “Every scrap of information you fed me-” she punches his face, “another bullet for my gun-” another punch, “everything I told you-” she punches, “all of it a lie-” she punches, “another crack-” she punches, “in the foundations-” she punches, “of your administration.”

She keeps beating his face in until it’s little more than a bloody pulp. She picks up her gun again.

“I want my home back you son of a bitch,” Tatiana snarls lowly. She raises her gun, and shoots him clean through the head.

 

* * *

 

There is little more that she hates than being underground, but at the moment Tatiana was relieved to be back home where she belonged, in the XCOM base.

Director Weir stares at her from across the desk, taking in the multitude of bruises coloring her visible skin. For her part, Tatiana just glares tiredly at him.

“I’m not doing that again, Will,” she says flatly.

“I won’t expect that you need to. ADVENT is crumbling before our very eyes.”

“Doesn’t mean there won’t be some other regime we’ll have to topple popping up soon.”

He sighs. “No, I probably not. You’ve got some time to rest until that happens.”

“You got the List alright, then?”

He nods.

“And the rest of the package?”

“Perhaps it’s best you go speak with Tygan.”

Without hesitation she stands, barely giving Weir a nod before hobbling out of his office. Despite obvious wounds, no one bothers to get her to stop and rest, her intense glare more than enough to clear her path. Everyone in the Anthill clears out of her way, at least until she bumps into Tygan just outside the infirmary.

“Agent Musil,” he greets with a nod. “I hope you’re here for more medical treatment.”

“I’m not.”

The doctor sighs almost disappointedly. “Lily is already in Engineering, if you’re looking for her.”

“Good to know.” She makes no move to head to Engineering and stares at him.

“Third door on the left, then.” He steps aside and lets her in, shaking his head.

She mumbles a thanks as she passes by, but otherwise keeps her focus on her destination. Once she finds the specified door, though, she hesitates, unsure. At last, she straightens out her coat and tie and lets herself in.

“Hey,” she greets, kicking the door shut again. She all but collapses into the chair beside the bed. “How do you feel?”

“Like shit,” John replies with a groan. “Didn’t have to shoot me twice, you know.”

Tatiana shrugs. “Didn’t know who was watching, if anyone. Better to be safe than sorry and let the Council think you’d died. It’s not like I aimed for anything important.”

“I should have guessed you were an expert marksman. You’re pretty terrible at hand to hand combat.” He tries to laugh, but it’s cut short from the pain of effort.

“Sniping was what I did before XCOM, before all of this spy nonsense,” she explains. Tentatively, she finds his hand and tangles their fingers together. 

He gives her fingers a squeeze to assure her. “You could have told me about before shooting me. I might’ve understood then. Also could have told me that your Moira was a doctor, too. That woman scares me, but she saved Rov-r and I, so I’ll give her my respect.”

“She’s not too bad once you get to know her. I was lucky she was available to help me so much.”

Silence falls between them for a moment. He turns to look at her, taking in her appearance. “You look better like this,” he says at last. “Comfortable in your skin, compared to all the dresses.”

A faint smile tugs at the corners of her lips. “I’m not much of a dress person,” she replies honestly.

“I noticed. Your badge is on the table, by the way,” he says, nodding towards it.

She glances at the badge and shakes her head. “That one was Raymond’s. It ought to go to Lily now.”

He pauses to think for a brief second. “When you said you wanted to go back to your people, you meant XCOM, didn’t you? Not Prague.”

Tatiana nods. “Well, both, but working for XCOM has done more for my home than the Council has ever done.” She hesitates for a moment and squeezes his hand. “How much has the Director told you? What do you think? I still mean what I said before.”

“The Director’s explained some, yes. I don’t know if he just doesn’t trust me yet, or if he just didn’t want to freak me out while I’m still full of holes,” he explains casually, squeezing her hand in return.

“That doesn’t answer my question, though.”

Carefully he extracts his hand from her grip. He reaches up to grab her tie and pulls her down into a kiss. Instinctively she cups his face with her hands, helping to hold them together for as long as possible.

“I’m staying. You’ll have to learn how to work with a partner, though.”

“I won’t mind that at all,” she assures, laughing. She leans in and steals another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus ends the disaster that is Elerium Brunette. I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
